STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 19 



would be fed to the bees. Such fed bees, even in a dis- 

 eased hive, will hatch, as is often the case. I never knew 

 of a case where a bee hatched from a brood-cell that had 

 ever had foul brood in. If the germs of disease are there in 

 the dried scale attached to the lower side-walls, bees will 

 store honey therein, the queen will deposit eggs, or the cell 

 may be filled with pollen, or bee-bread, as some call it. 

 Said honey or pollen, when it comes in contact with those 

 germs of disease, or the food given the young bee, if in the 

 proper temperature, said germs of disease will grow and 

 develop rapidly. 



CAUSES BY CONTAGION. 



I fully believe if the history of foul brood in Wisconsin 

 was known, nearly every case could be traced to contagion 

 from diseased combs, honey, or from some diseased queen- 

 breeder's cages. Here are some instances where I have traced 

 the history of contagion in Wisconsin : 



1. Diseased apiaries, also single colonies, sold either at 

 auction or private sale. Several law-suits have resulted in 

 the settlement of some of the cases. 



2. Brood-combs and various implements from diseased 

 hives, used by other bee-keepers, and borrowed articles. 



3. All the bees in an apiary dead from foul brood, and 

 the hives having an abundance of honey in the brood-combs, 

 said combs placed out by the side of hives so that neighbors' 

 bees might get the honey. From those combs I lined robber- 

 bees to seven other apiaries, and each time became diseased 

 and were treated. 



4. iiobber-bees working on empty honey-packages in the 

 back yards of grocery stores and baking factories. Said honey 

 came from diseased apiaries, some located in far distant 

 States, even Cuba. 



5. Loaning of hives, comhs, extractors, and even empty 

 honey-packages. 



6. Buying honey from strangers, or not knowing where 

 it was produced, and feeding it to bees without boiling the 

 honey. 



7. Too common a practice of using old brood-combs 

 from some apiary where the owner's bees have died from 

 "bad luck," as he calls it. 



8. Queen-bee — by buying queen-bees from strangers and 

 introducing her in the cages they came in. I have traced 

 several new outbreaks of the disease to the hives where such 

 queens were introduced, and the queens came from distant 

 States. To be safe, on arrival of queen, put her carefully 

 alone in a new and clean cage with good food in it. Keep 

 her in there, warm and comfortable, for a few hours 

 before introducing. The shipping cage and every bee that came 

 with the queen should be put in the stove and burned. I do not 

 think there is any danger from the queen so treated, even from 

 diseased hives, but I do know of many cases where disease 

 soon appeared in the hives where the shipping-cage and bees 



